What is it like being Ravenmaster at the Tower of London? – books podcast

In this week’s show, we visit the Tower of London to meet Christopher Skaife, a Yeoman Warder and the Ravenmaster at the Tower. According to legend, if the ravens leave the Tower, it will crumble to dust and great harm will befall the kingdom – so Chris has a big responsibility on his hands. Sian heads to the Tower to discuss the realities of such a strange job – and Chris’s theory about the truth behind the raven myth.

And the philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah has been ruffling feathers all over the world. In his latest book The Lies That Bind, he describes how he’s been taken for an Ethiopian in Rome, a Maghrebi in Paris and a Brazilian in Sao Paulo. When he tells London cabbies he was born in the city, he writes, “that’s not what they really want to know. What they mean to ask is where my family came from originally.” Kwame sits down with Richard to discuss how nationality, class, religion and race shape us.